Scroll down for a selection of beautiful birth stories

Welcome to our library of International Birthing Resources

Scroll down for a selection of beautiful birth stories

Welcome!

As a group of international filmmakers and midwives, our aim is to stimulate discussion and thought about natural birth by providing powerful and creative information and resources. At World Birth Hub we wish to uplift birth, and reduce the fear and dissatisfaction surrounding it. We want wellbeing for mothers and babies everywhere. We hope our work strengthens the connections between women, families and the community. Birth is a sensitive human rights issue.

People working and birthing in poor countries often welcome the arrival of modern medicine and facilities. Those working and birthing in wealthy countries often regret the medical management of such a sacred and instinctive event. Around the world, arguments rage about the best systems, facilities, traditions, practices and techniques for birth. We believe there is a vast middle ground that acknowledges the benefits of both ancient traditions and modern medicine. Our desire is to show images of women birthing in power. Images of kindness and triumph.

We know all women are capable of taking responsibility for their decision-making and choices. What one woman can do, all women can do. Women everywhere give birth in all kinds of conditions. There are millions of amazing stories unfolding every day. Stories of strength, joy, endurance, healing, courage, sadness, trauma, tenderness, determination, challenge and discovery. This is what connects us as human beings.

Filmmaker Toni Harman is running a FREE WEBINAR available to watch FROM TUESDAY 20th March (until 27th March) to help maternity health professionals feel much more confident when asked about the infant microbiome. The infant microbiome is the science that strongly...

In this talk from the 2014 Cape Town Midwifery and Birth Conference, midwife Ruth Ehrhardt speaks about what being a midwife means to her, from her perspective as a daughter, a mother and a midwife. See truemidwifery.com for more...

Access to good, personalised and loving care should be a basic human right for any pregnant woman. Unfortunately, this is not the reality for most. I offer my services as a home birth midwife to the women in and around my community, who would like to be able to access...

Earlier this year, some midwife and childbirth educator friends and I presented a 5 day refresher training workshop to some 30 midwives and health workers in Laos. They were from villages within 2 of the poorest districts in Luang Prabang Province, where there are...

Brenda and DeAndre´ Vaxter were planning on a hospital birth and were all set for that when Brenda, at 36 weeks, approached her husband about having their baby at home. Loving and practical, DeAndre recognized that his wife’s desire was deep and heartfelt. He asked Brenda to set up an interview with a midwife and the rest is history.

A few weeks ago I came back home to South Africa after a full and busy tour of teaching and presenting in various countries in Europe. I don’t think I quite realised what I had signed myself up for when I said yes to all the commitments I had made but for three weeks...

The Compassionate Birth Project is a systems based programme which offers staff working in public maternity units, from midwives and doctors to clerks and security, a process to discover the human compassion within themselves, empowering them to provide more holistic,...

In many cultures, burying the placenta in or near the house is a guarantee that your child will return home. A young woman called Lilith visited me last week. She came all the way from Belgium to visit her place of birth. She had just turned 21. When her mama was 21...

Anamboya means ‘midwife’ in Shona I have heard about this Zimbabwean midwife in the informal settlement of Masiphumelele for about a year now. I have heard that she is a traditional midwife and that many women in the Zimbabwean community in Cape Town seek her out...

Matilda has a flock of fine looking hens. All kinds and colours. They live close to the house, but don’t generally come in the house. She loves having them around, clucks over them and cares for them. When she went into labour at home, one of her hens, called Dougal,...

~ In memory of my mother ~ My mother, Carol Kathleen Ehrhardt, was born in Athlone, a ‘coloured’ area in Cape Town, South Africa, in December 1950. In 1958, under the Apartheid government’s Population Registration Act, her family were reclassified ‘white’...

Ministry of health: A hearing with a panel of 3 “judges”. I sit in the room, watching them, hearing them. They are all men, even the expert witness who came to give his insights about homebirth. Beside me sit 7-8 more women, listening. We are not allowed to talk. The...

The reboso, or Mexican shawl, can be used in many ways to promote circulation, mobility, balance and open-ness in a mother’s pelvis in pregnancy and birth. Different techniques can also effectively bring babies in or out of the pelvis, and help them change to a more...

Strong words said by a mother… Then another mother says to me, “There’s no way I’m going to the hospital!” And then another mother says, “I don’t want to go to the hospital for even one check up. Everyone I know ends up with caesareans…” Three different mothers. Three...

There is a young woman in my neighborhood called Kate who recently gave birth. I have known her since she was 10 years old. I helped her mother Catherine give birth to babies number 10 and 11. When Kate was 13 years old, her mother asked her to catch baby number 11...

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